How Do People Get Rich—Is There A Secret To Wealth
Posted: Sunday, April 25, 2010
by Steve Kovacs
The Kovacs Perspective
If I take a certain scenic way home, I drive through one of the wealthiest community's in America . It's about 25 square miles and has a population of about 1,500. As I was driving home this evening, I drove by the Lerner Estate, which is a huge home built about six years ago. Al Lerner, the owner of the Cleveland Browns football team built it. Mr. Lerner died a few years ago and other family members live in the home now. As I drove by, I wondered how people could get so wealthy as to be able to build a home the size of a shopping mall. I knew that at one time, Lerner was a furniture salesman and in fact, our present dining room table was sold to my family years ago by Lerner, and handed down to us. Small world isn't it! Lerner worked hard and became wealthy as the owner of MBNA, so he worked his way to mega wealth.
PNC Wealth Management conducted a survey of people with more than $500,000 free to invest. With home equity and other assets included, they were described as millionaires. Only 6% of those surveyed earned their money from inheritance alone. 69% earned their wealth mostly by trading time and effort for money, or by "working."
How about the super rich of the past, did they work or inherit? Here's a quick look into some names synonymous with mountains of money.
John D. Rockefeller
Worth: $318.3 billion
Rockefeller wasn't born to a rich family. Rockefeller started out in business as a wholesale grocer and went on to found Standard Oil.
Andrew Carnegie
Worth: $298.3 billion
Immigrated as a young child to Pittsburgh from Scotland and began working at 13 years old as a bobbin boy in a textile mill. He changed spools of threads for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. He went on to build a huge steel empire to become the world's largest manufacturer of steel rails, pig iron, and coke.
Andrew William Mellon
Worth: $188.1 billion
Was the son of banker Thomas Mellon (who founded the Mellon Bank). Andrew got his start early: he started a lumber company at the age of 17 and by the age of 27 had taken over his father's bank. He also got into oil, steel, shipbuilding, and construction businesses.
Henry Ford
Worth: $188.1 billion
If Henry Ford's father had his way, Henry would take over the family farm and become a farmer. After the death of his mother, Henry, who didn't like farming, left home in 1879 at the age of 16 to work as an apprentice machinist. The rest is history. You may very well be one of the millions driving a Ford vehicle.
Donald Trump
Worth: $3.0 billion
Donald Trump came from a wealthy father who had his own real estate company. Donald took over the family real estate business. In addition to real estate interests, he has moved into many other ventures, and in my view, would market anything without a sold sign prominently placed somewhere on it.
My unscientific research into an answer on how people have become wealthy shows me one simple thing. As my elementary school teachers and parents told me as a child, if you want something, you have to work hard at it. I would add not only work hard but also work smart, but the cornerstone answer seems to be . . . old-fashioned work. This being said, I'll keep buying my weekly lottery ticket though, you never know!
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Top-level comments on this article: (9 total)Interesting article Steve. I enjoy hearing 'rags-to-riches' stories, proves it can be done! As for me, I'm with ya, I think I need to start buying lottery tickets!Can't hurt! Thanks!
Wealth and how to obtain it is always an interesting topicThanks for reading and writing Melissa--it is a intersting topic isn't it!
Great reading. Maybe it is just the stories i am familiar with but there appears to be a commonality of self made millionairs having left education early and begun working at the bottom of the ladderResearching this article I stumbled on quite a few mega rich folks that did quit school and make tons--like Cornelius Vanderbilt who quit at age 11 and ended up being worth 167 billion.
At one time I thought my singing voice and crazy sense of humour would be the answer to fame and fortune for me. But when I went to LA, I found that everybody and their mother had some kind of talent. I believe attaining wealth is just like winning the lottery, it is a matter of luck. Henry Ford may have been at the right place at the right time and knew the right people to get his cars on the road. Perhaps a Josh Weidelstein also invented the car but did not know Thomas Edison as Ford did. If the situation was reversed then we may be driving Weidelsteins instead of Fords. As for me, I'l still try for American Idol. I'll lie about my age and dye my hair. But I also know that I have a better chance of fame and fortune with the lottery or maybe I will finally finish the book that i am writing and get that published. As for you my friend I think what you are doing with your writing skills may help you to fame and fortune before the lottery.How funny that everyone in LA has some kind of talent--I know what you're saying! A guy I knew was a great local guitar player and he moved to New York City to make it big--when he got there, he found that were like 30 people just as talented as him--he's back playing the local circuit just getting by. A Weidelstein... sounds interesting and your point makes sense. Luck, yeah, what does it really mean, I don't know...but it's probably a factor as you say. AND thanks for your nice words.Steve
Another point is that these folks threw themselves into something they loved to do, or learned to love it. It's to get rich working for someone else as well.Good stuff here!Then how come I can't make a fortune sitting in my Lazy-Boy recliner--I love it and I'm really good at it--but no one wants to pay me for it.
They just do what they love, I thinkI've heard if you love what you do you can't help but be good at it and maybe if it pays well you've got it made--money wise at least.Thnaks for writing!Steve
People get rich by working hard at something new (in the case of Henry Ford or Edison) or taking something and running with it (Bill Gates). People stay rich by not wasting money and not getting side-tracked. And yes, luck plays a part, though I would say it isn't as much luck as people might think: being in the right place in the right time is one thing, but knowing what to do at that time is the key.Well done.
Hi Steve,it seems to me you are either born into weatlh(ie Paris Hilton is one example) or you land into something that really works,saying that there are business entrepreneurs out there with ideas on how to become a millionaire overnight but like in your article if you think you can do something then go out there and do it i think poeple in the USA are a great example its the only country in the world that encourages young people and business like minded people to strive for the best
A very interesting article and thought provoking also.Thank you for saying so....Steve
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